Vol 7 Issue 4 | March 2012 - National Library Singapore

08
The essay begins in 19th century Japan where a Japanese
the crew drifted east along the Japan Current and found land
09
FEATURE
crew that had set sail for Edo (now known as Tokyo) got
shipwrecked and three surviving sailors finally washed-up in
America. The following section details how the earnest efforts
only after 14 months. By then the crew had been reduced to
three (Haruna, 1879, p. 29–33).
of American and English missionaries to repatriate the sailors
Sometime between the end of 1833 and the early months of
were met with resolute hostility from a Japan which practised a
1834, the three surviving crew members were washed ashore
closed-door policy, forcing them to live estranged in a country
the northwest coast of the American continent, near Cape Alva,
and culture vastly different from theirs. Meanwhile in Macao
on the Olympic Peninsula in the present state of Washington
(now known as Macau, the ex-Portuguese colony near Hong
(Mihama et al, 2006, p. 3). They were Otokichi (the youngest,
Kong), the Japanese worked with a German missionary in his
about 17 years old), Kyukichi (18 years old) and Iwakichi (an
ambitious attempt to translate John’s Gospel and his Epistles
experienced helmsman around 30 years old) (See note 8,
into Japanese. To print the manuscript posed another challenge,
Haruna, 1979, p. 255). They were discovered by and lived
for the printing capabilities of missionary societies were in their
with the Makah tribe 3 in a what is now known as a ‘long house’
nascent stage in the first half of the 19th century (Proudfoot,
until May 1834, when John McLoughlin, chief factor, trader
1994, p. 9).
and administrator of the then Oregon Country of Hudson’s Bay
Company (HBC) 4 at Fort Vancouver, bought them at a high price
Since China then was hostile to foreigners and missionar-
from the tribe (Rich, 1941, p. 122).
ies, the manuscript and types were sent to Singa-
A Work of Many
pore, where the more open socio-political
climate and available printing- and
press-capabilities enabled its
At Fort Vancouver, the
three Japanese
regained their
Hands
printing. In Singapore, Chinese
engravers who
had no knowledge
of Japanese were
health under
the care of
McLoughlin,
who was also
The First Japanese Translation
of John’s Gospel and his Epistles
tasked to produce
the woodcuts
for printing the
translation. With
a medical doctor.
They found
themselves surrounded
by strange
funding from an
European faces and unfa-
American mission
miliar customs, and were sent
Sachiko Tanaka
Professor Emeritus
Sugiyama Jogakuen University
Irene Lim
Senior Associate I
NL Heritage
National Library Board
This page
The first Japanese translation of ‘The Gospel According To John’ by Dr
Karl Gützlaff. (Source: The Japan Bible Society).
A
The Hojunmaru was a typical Japanese cargo ship known as sengokubune.
(Source: The Otokichi Society).
The first Japanese translation of John’s Gospel
and his Epistles was printed in 1837 in a modest
printing press in Singapore; this was located at the
corner of Bras Basah Road and North Bridge Road
where the Raffles Hotel stands today. Tracing the
production of this pioneering work — its translation,
typesetting, woodcutting and eventual printing —
takes us through 19th century Japan, China, U.S.,
England and its colony of Singapore. It required
the resourcefulness and passion of individuals,
persevering support and resources of mission societies,
and an open socio-political climate in host countries
to enable the completion of the work.
society, the translation
was finally
printed, having by
then utilised the competences and
resources of several individuals of varying affiliations,
and who were located in different cities.
Unexpected Opportunity: Stranded Japanese
Sailors Help Translate John’s Gospel and his
Epistles
Japan adopted a closed-door policy from 1638 to 1854. The
opportunity for foreigners to enter Japan or interact with Japanese
culture in the early 19th century was rare, if any. To have the
Bible translated into Japanese would therefore have been an
insurmountable task. 1 Yet, it was an ambition that Dr Karl Gutzlaff
(1803–1851), a German missionary, dared to embrace.
In November 1832, the Hojunmaru 2 (literally ‘treasure-followship’)
had set sail for Edo from Toba Port, one of the major
ports between Osaka and Edo, carrying freshly-harvested rice,
pottery and other consumer goods in time for the new year. Most
of its 14-member crew was from a small fishing village called
Onoura, located not far from Toba across the Ise Bay on the
Pacific Ocean coast. After several days at sea, the Hojunmaru
was shipwrecked after encountering a fierce storm. Incredibly,
A
to a school for the children of
company workers and local
methis (mixed blood children
with white Europeans and native
Indians). Methodist missionary Cyrus Shepard reported
to the Boston Office of the Methodist Episcopal Church on 10
January 1835, “I have also had three Japanese under instruction
… While in school, they were remarkably studious, and made
very rapid improvement.” 5 In Japan, the three Japanese would
have attended a local temple school that taught katakana 6 and
the use of the abacus. They would also have been taught that
speaking to foreigners was forbidden and that listening to a Christian
message would have meant a certain death in those days.
At Fort Vancouver, the three Japanese did all of that and even
joined in at mealtime prayers for they saw kindness in those who
gave them shelter.
McLoughlin, as chief administrator of the British Hudson’s Bay
Company, cherished the hope that Japan may open its doors to
Britain — Vancouver was then still a British colony — by sending
the shipwrecked Japanese back to their home. So, he put them
on their company ship the Eagle (a 194-ton brigantine captained
by W. Darby) which left the Columbia River on 25 November
1834 via Honolulu and arrived at London in the beginning of June
1835. 7 She anchored on the Thames and the three Japanese
were taken to see the great city of London, thus becoming the